“We enjoy great freedoms in the United States. Let us never forget the men and women who have laid down their lives on the line to defend and protect our religious liberties,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of the U.S. Archdiocese of the Military Services, said in a prayer for Veterans Day released Nov. 10.

The annual Veterans Day observance “invites us to remember those killed in the line of duty, those still suffering the effects of their generous response in times of national need, and of course, everyone who has retired from active duty,” he continued.

“We cannot forget the sacrifices of so many. We sense an obligation to express our gratitude, and we certainly remember them in our prayers,” Archbishop Broglio added.

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said that today at “the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month of 2011, we will pause to honor America’s veterans and celebrate their contributions to our way of life. Few have given more to our nation than the men and women who have served in our armed forces in peace and war.” Check out his statement and a gallery of photos of members of the military serving over the years put together by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

6 Responses to Praying for the nation’s veterans, who put their lives on the line to ‘defend, protect our precious liberties’

I always pray for the so-flawed political leaders who never seem to learn that so many die, today so many more survive with awful mental and medical damage, trillions of currency from every nation, millions of refugees, destroyed property and innocent collateral damage are all part of the WAR IS HELL mentality.

Since I was born, I do not recall any war in which the reason was to “protect our precious liberties” but I remember too many that were mastermind to enrich a few and transform into machine-killers too many of our children.

How long is this myth of America’s Military defending “our freedom” going to persist? When was Korea, Veitnam, Panama, Iraq, and Afganistan ever a threat to American freedom? But hold on: let’s look at something taking place this very minute in our own country concerning freedom and what our military is doing to protect it. Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are exercising their American right to protest the government’s policies concerning our major banks and their policies and how they affect millions of Americans (this being the general issue, void of specific issues I will not explain here as to get to the point of this post). In the past two months protesters are being beaten, pepper sprayed (an 85 year old Seattle woman for instance), and hundreds, if not thousands, of arrests nation wide have occurred. Students at CA Davis University, sitting down, pepper sprayed. A woman in NYC beaten trying to find her child and a NYC supreme court judge who not only witnessed it, but was herself thrown against a wall by police trying to intervene. Senseless brutality, a show of excessive force against its own citizens. Where is our military? Well, to be frank, they are stationed over in Afganistan, Iraq, and strategic military bases throughout the world basically protecting U.S. business interests. If these demonstrations persist and grow & the national guard is called in, who will they be protecting? U.S. business interests. Who will they be occupying? American citizens who are exercising their rights under our own Constitution,
Intentions of the Church during Mass will pray for our service men and their families, which I totally support. As stated above, war is hell, and it affects us all as a nation. But I’ve never heard prayers for those in these countries being killed, their families in grieving, and the general suffering that they are enduring. This is not good for our Church in my opinion.
Since September, however, at the two Catholic Churches that I attend Mass at, not once has an intention gone out for the American demonstrators who have been beaten and imprisoned, and their families. I’ve been trying to locate information about these demonstrations and the Catholic Church’s position concerning this most important current event in our nation & so far I have come up with nothing. I read Catholic New York newspaper, though some times not from cover to cover, but usually the major article’s, and have not seen anything concerning this event. But I’ve read a lot of article’s concerning same-sex marriage.
Where is our Church’s priorities? I’m guilty of not responding on some of these issues as my God-given conscious tells me, for instance, same-sex marraige, which is absolutely no threat what-so-ever to the institution of marriage and family and is, in fact, descrimination, especially in a “Democracy (I quote only because I don’t believe that the U.S. has ever been a true Democracy)” which is suppose to – again stated in our own Constitution – uphold certain rights of the American MINORITY.
When a priest or deacon speaks about American freedom in a homily, for instance on Verteran’s Day, Independence Day, and Memorial Day, I silently endure their rhetoric propaganda: maybe that is a mistake, after all, I come to Mass to hear The Gospel and to worship God, the Holy Trinity, with all of my heart. soul, and might, and not government institutions or nations, and I should address this issue to my pastor. My patience is really tried if the homily goes into specifics concerning polictics, especially when concerned about voting (I’ve heard it said that it is our “Catholic Duty” to vote. No, it is not, and I charish the freedom to not vote, especially against my own conscious).
Back to the point of this opinion, I am finding that our Church needs to be clear in such positions (only once in the 10 years that I officially became Catholic through RCIA, have I heard a priest ‘blister’ the U.S. government’s current war policy and it’s history – which I did applaud and afterward thanked him because it was the first time that a Catholic priest had ever expressed my views and opinions on the subject, and to this day remains the only one). The Catholic Church of America needs to make a stand on whether or not it supports this movement, and enter into it the way it did during the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-War Movement of Vietnam.

Thank you, Daniel. But I don’t feel obliged to thank myself for serving my country, from 1984 – 87. It wasn’t very pleasant, I might add, having to go through my congressman to get the army to pay me the $12,000 they owed me for college, which they denied, even after I sent all of the documentation to prove that a mistake had been made. So I sent everything that I had sent them to my congressman & three weeks later they sent my congressman – not me – an apology letter for the mistake. I give the army credit for that; many service members file the same kinds of grievances and it takes the US military years to resolve. As for what I have, well, I thank God. {8~)>

I have consistently defended the military personnel since I came to realize the Hellishness of all wars, but have never seen justification for the manipulation by politicians, which more recently seems to include the blurring of the lines between the Generals in the Field and their Commanders in Chief and the men and women in the field. Making speeches on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day and July 4 seem so hollow compared to the political, and on the ground reality. Too much blood and too much Treasure./